This blog is totally independent and has only three major objectives.
The first is to inform readers of news and happenings in the e-Health domain, both here in Australia and world-wide.
The second is to provide commentary on e-Health in Australia and to foster improvement where I can.
The third is to encourage discussion of the matters raised in the blog so hopefully readers can get a balanced view of what is really happening and what successes are being achieved.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Here Is A List DoHA and NEHTA Ought To Think Carefully About.

The following appeared overnight.

GAO's 9 common critical success factors of federal IT projects

November 22, 2011 | Tom Sullivan, Editor

Knowing which tactics make for smooth, investment-worthy IT efforts can be as tricky as the projects themselves. Looking to shed some light on the matter, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) compiled a list of best practices based on interviews with CIOs and other acquisitions and procurement officials.

Using as a basis seven government IT projects – one of those being the VA’s Occupation Health Record-keeping System – the GAO boiled that list down to the “common factors that were critical to the success of three or more of the seven investments.”

Those are:

Program officials were actively engaged with stakeholders

Program staff had the necessary knowledge and skills

Senior department and agency executives supported the programs

End users and stakeholders were involved in the development of requirements

End users participated in testing of system functionality prior to formal end user acceptance testing

Government and contractor staff were stable and consistent

Program staff prioritized requirements

Program officials maintained regular communication with the prime contractor